Istanbul authorities do not confirm information about involvement of Tajiks in Istanbul attack

Urgently

DUSHANBE, June 30, 2016, Asia-Plus – Authorities in the Turkish city of Istanbul and Istanbul security agencies do not confirm the information about involvement of Tajiks in a terror attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on June 28.

According to the Tajik MFA, representatives of the Tajik Embassy in Ankara and the Tajik General Consulate in Istanbul have met with representatives of the Istanbul municipal government and the Istanbul security agencies over the report posted on Turkish Milliyet newspaper’s website. “They did not confirm the information that was released by Milliyet on June 30,” the Tajik MFA said.

Besides, Tajik diplomats reportedly met with senior representatives of Milliyet and they said that the material had been prepared by freelancer and Milliyet editors have no information about the source for that report.

Tajikistan General Consulate in Istanbul has reportedly asked Milliyet editor to publish a denial.

Meanwhile, Turkish Haber Turk newspaper reported on June 29 that one of suicide bombers was identified as Turkish national Muslim Sariyar.

Quoting Turkish Habertürk TV Channel, Russian TASS news agency says that one of suicide bombers in Istanbul could be Chechen.

According to Habertürk, a Chechen national (initials O.V.) came to Istanbul from Rakka, the Syrian city, which is now controlled by ISIS militants, TASS reported, noting that some media outlets identified the suicide bomber as Osman Vadinov.

According to TASS, Turkish Karar.com news website reports that the ISIS cell comprising seven people is behind the terror attack at Istanbul’s international airport and the suicide bombers were natives of Chechnya, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

As it had been reported earlier, Turkish Milliyet newspaper reported on June 30 that the three suicide bombers might be nationals of Tajikistan.

We will recall that Turkey pointed the finger at Islamic State on Wednesday for a triple suicide bombing and gun attack that killed 42 people at Istanbul's main airport, and President Tayyip Erdogan called it a turning point in the global fight against terrorism.

Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport on Tuesday night, before two of them got inside and blew themselves up. 239 people were wounded, officials said, giving a full account of the bloodshed, according to Reuters.

The attack was one of the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in Turkey, which is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.